As you can imagine staying together for three months in a car can get a little enclosed and there’s a good chance we would get irritated at each other. We definitely needed time by ourselves at certain points of this trip. With that being said, I worked at a golf course that is owned by a company called ClubCorp during this time. Now because of this, I had access to multiple properties throughout the United States to golf, which ClubCorp owned. This was a great benefit to have, because when we were in Aspen I was able to play golf for free and give Ashley a four hour break from me.
We left our campsite early this morning from Rocky Mountain National Park. Our campsite was a little chilly when we woke up, thus we packed up quickly, and headed west along I-70 towards Glenwood Springs. I-70 is a famous drive, and gorgeous on its own right, however the real stunner to me was the Glenwood Springs Canyon you drive through along this route. As we approached Glenwood, we took our exit, and headed south towards Aspen.
I decided to play Aspen Glen Golf Club while she went to the city of Aspen and to see the famous Maroon Bells. I was supposed to see the Maroon Bells but unfortunately, by the time I was done with golf, it was too late to get back to the Maroon Bells and have time to hike the famous Hanging Lake hike located near Glenwood Springs.
Aspen Glen is one of the best courses I’ve played in Colorado and features a spectacular clubhouse and a true private experience. The golf is not the main objective of this blog or the trip but I will say that this was one of the highlights of the adventure being able to play for free at a course two thousand miles from home. It turned out that one of the food and beverage staff knew a friend of mine from the club in Tampa, and he gave me lunch for free while at the course. This was great and made me think of how small of a world we live in.
After I was done golfing, Ashley picked me up from golf. I did decide to venture back towards the Maroon Bells, but I was unable to see them due to the time of day we were there.
PROTIP- The Maroon Bells are one of Colorado’s most iconic sets of peaks. These are possibly the most famous peaks in all of the United States, next to Grand Tetons National Park. During the day time (before 5pm), you must take a bus for $5 parking fee, into this popular viewing, and hiking area. At 5pm however, visitors are allowed to drive into the viewing area of the National Monument. the bus is publicly funded, but you must pay for parking, if you do not decide to drive in.
Since we were too early to visit, and we didn’t have time to wait, we decided to head back towards Glenwood Springs to do a hike called ‘Hanging Lake’. I had only heard of this and had seen pictures but I did not expect this hike to be as majestic as it was. As the name entails, the lake is perched above the timberline in the Glenwood canyon area of Colorado. The drive through Glenwood Canyon is spectacular in its own right as well.
This hike requires about a 1500 foot ascension along the river to reach the peak. Once at the top you can see many different rivers and waterfalls and when you get to the very top of the lake itself there is a river that flows into it via three waterfalls as the pictures entail.
PROTIP– There is an extension of the last part of the hike that goes above where the initial lake and falls are and you can see three waterfalls that actually come out of the mountain rock wall, as opposed to flowing over a ledge. This was a unique find and well worth the effort to get to the top!
This is one of the best surprises of the trip, as we did not expect the trail to be this beautiful. Something about waterfalls really impress me on a personal level, so this was an exceptional experience. Now we did not know we were going to camp that night… so we drove until we found a local campsite park along I-40. This cost $25 but was worth it since we were able to camp next to a river, and enjoy the sounds of through the night. As far as dinner ,we had Qdoba in Glenwood Springs, which was a first for regular dinner food in a while. Fast food would eventually become a good option for us in the future but we got to bed early around eight knowing that we had another early morning ahead of us. Time to relax!
June 10 Expenses
13.84 gas
9.02 breakfast snack
18 aspen glen lunch rick
25 aspen glen lunch ashley
21.42 gas
21.40 quodoba
25 camp
Total – 133.44
Rocky Mountain NP to Hanging Lake – MILES DRIVEN – 322
——————————
UTD – behind 49.85
UTD Total – 1249.85
Gas total – 254.52